China does a Little America Bashing

What’s gotten into the Chinese these days? At a time when America’s politicians usually indulge in a little China bashing, Beijing’s political elite is doing some America bashing. First came the strangely timed anti-American diatribe supposedly penned by former Foreign Minister Qian Qichen on the eve of the US Presidential election. Now comes another lecture from the deputy governor of the People’s Bank of China.

In an interview with the British publication, the Financial Times, Li Ruogu scolded Washington for blaming its fiscal problems, particularly the burgeoning trade deficit, on other countries. “China’s custom is that we never blame others for our own problems,” he said. “The U.S. has the reverse attitude. Whenever they have a problem, they blame others.”

Li may have been a little peeved over the remarks that Secretary of the Treasury John Snow has been making of late claiming that Washington wants a strong dollar, when everybody knows that it has been pressuring Beijing to revalue China’s currency, the reminbi, that is make it stronger against the greenback, to make Chinese exports to the U.S. more expensive and perhaps cut down the trade deficit.

It may be a mark of China’s growing economic confidence, not to mention more than $500 billion in foreign currency reserves, that Li can offer such blunt advice. He insisted that the appreciation of China’s currency would not solve America’s fiscal problems. Noting that while China does have a small overall trade deficit, ”we certainly don’t want to run into the U.S. situation of having a deficit of 6% of GDP.”

Ouch.

Qian Qichen’s earlier essay in the People’s Daily, later reprinted in the English-language China Daily, was entitled “U.S. Strategy Seriously Flawed.” On one level it could be read as a standard Chinese attack on U.S. hegemony in the aftermath of the Cold War. This has been a common theme of many official pronouncements over the decade.

Two things made the article remarkable. The first, of course, was the timing, published just a day before the election. Why is a mystery since it is hard to believe that anyone in Beijing thought they might influence the course of the polling. Indeed, the article was hardly reported in the U.S. at all. The Foreign Ministry LATER issued a non-denial denial, saying Qian had not been interviewed by the newspaper but did not claim he had not made the comments.

Beijing usually shows a little more tact in such matters. Moreover, China’s leaders had no special reason to wish Bush’s defeat. Beijing has generally tilted toward Republicans ever since Richard Nixon led the way to restoring normal relations. They liked President George H.W. Bush who had served as ambassador and later sent his national security deputy Brent Scowcroft to Beijing shortly after the June 4, 1989 crackdown in Tiananmen Square.

Moreover, China hardly figured in the presidential election at all. No references to dictators, no references to strategic competitors, no real complaints about the trade deficit. Democratic candidate John Kerry occasionally blasted outsourcing of manufacturing to China, but that was just about all.

The second thing that made Qian’s attack notable was the unusually harsh tone. Part of Qian’s essay was simply a kind of tour d’horizon of political and strategic developments up through the current war in Iraq, which he noted had made the U.S. even more unpopular in the world community than the Vietnam War. Nothing too remarkable about that.

He went on to say, “ The troubles and disasters the United States has met do not stem from threats by others, but from its own cocksureness and arrogance. The 21st Century is not the ‘American Century.’ That does not mean that the United States does not want to dream. Rather it is incapable of realizing the goal.”

Ouch and double ouch.

Qian is in retirement, but he remains one of the recognized experts on international relations in the Chinese Communist Party. As foreign minister he maneuvered skillfully to try to win back China’s international prestige following the 1989 Tiananmen crackdown. As a vice premier, he continued to direct foreign relations even after he ceased being foreign minister.

By and large Sino-American relations have been on a pretty even keel in recent years, aside from the occasional sniping about its overvalued currency. That makes the recent comments all the more mysterious. If it had been Qian alone, the issue might be passed over a curiosity. But two such criticisms in one month raise questions that something is afoot.